The tin of phillumeny

Read on if you would like to know how I discovered Casterton's secret phillumenist and that there is a kind of hobby called phillumeny.

Before you 'wikipedia' it, I will satiate your curiosity and tell you that phillumeny is the hobby of collecting 'things related to matches'. The things you light a fire with. Such things as matchboxes, matchbox labels, and matchbooks.

Don't worry if you've never heard of it; I was ignorant of the word, the hobby and the Australian Match Cover Society until last weekend when I traveled to Casterton to attend the Collections Exhibition at the Casterton Town Hall.

There I happily collected my complimentary Devonshire tea and perused the exhibitions for some interesting Object Story objects.

Two gollywog collections, two tables of tea-cups that made me weak at the knees, a trestle of tea-pots, shelves of toy cars and tractors that produced envious toddler tears, a well-seasoned selection of salt and pepper shakers (500 all up!), hundreds of stubby holders centred around the prize possession of a stubby holder adorned with a petrified cane toad, and a collection of musical instruments broad and big enough to appease the quick fingers of any gypsy band...

But no matchbox collection, not that I had expected one or hoped for one. Oh no, my discovery of Casterton's best phillumenist happened quite by chance.

I was introduced to Betty as the woman with a very nice tea cup collection.

"Do you have anything here that could tell a great story about the history of Casterton, Betty?" I asked her. She shrugged. "Oh well, apart from these teacups I've got a tin collection too. Some of them are over 100 years old".

Bingo!

We wandered over to the tin collection and at a nimble 83, she slipped over the white rope barricading off her exhibit and picked up one of the oldest tins.

"Oh yes. This old tin used to sit on my Mum's mantle piece. Must be over 100 years old. Oh, hang on, its full of something. Not sure what, probably junk".

"I suppose it would have been a precious object back then?" I asked.

"You'd have never thrown something like that away, they didn't have our disposable culture back then did they? When would she have first got it Betty, 1915?"

Betty did some calculations in her head whilst turning the tin in her hands.

"Mmm, about that, yes I suppose it was."

"Oh look!" I exclaim as she turns the tin around to reveal a label on the back that reads:

THIS CANNISTER IS TOO GOOD TO BE THROWN AWAY

WHEN EMPTY USE IT ON YOUR KITCHEN SHELF FOR OTHER GOODS

And then a space is left for the wife of the family to write a new label, describing the new contents of the tin. We both sigh happily at the thoughtfulness of that tin manufacturer, who thought beyond his own product and into the lives and kitchens of his frugal female customers.

Betty tried to prise the lid off and after a fair effort on her behalf it finally came loose. Inside was the prize. We discovered a tin packed full of hundreds of matchbox lids.

Phillumeny.

I only learnt that word after getting back to the office and trying to find out more about the matchbox labels.

Perching on the carpeted steps of the Casterton Town Hall, we positioned ourselves near the other Betty, who is 93 and more likely to be able to inform us about the significance of some of the collection. Leafing through the tin and exclaiming like children, we discovered a piecemeal history of white Australia told via matchbox label narrative. We saw Melbourne in the 1930s, Charles Kingsford Smith, Don Bradman, some football stars from the 30s, Surfers paradise in the 1950s, the 1956 summer Olympics, the Royal Visit; the list goes on.

Betty never realised that her mother, Gran Smith, had been collecting so many matchbox labels over the years. And I am quite sure that Gran Smith never thought of herself as a phillumenist. But she was, she really was! And thanks to her, we can now discover a little bit more about the history of this colony simply by opening up her old tea tin and diving in.

If she was around today I would love to sit down with Gran Smith over Devonshire tea and ask her more about each object and the story that it tells.